Assault of the Bishop of Western New York upon the Dean of the General Theological Seminary, and the Dean's reply

Front matter

Br the Bishop of Springfield

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Table Of Contents

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Preface, - 7

Charts, 8-11

Prefatory Note

The design of these letters, or chapters, on Modern Romanism, is clearly stated in the first of the series.

The undertaking was not spontaneous ; it was pressed upon the writer by others, as a work which was greatly needed at the present time, and one, which, if well done, would be productive of great and permanent benefit. Upon this point, the ability and skill displayed in the treatment of the subject others must decide, but the writer must urge that the argument is not complete, since the testimony of the sub-apostolic and primitive Church must be produced as interpreting and applying Holy Scripture, in order to dismiss, absolutely and forever, the claim that the polity of Modern Romanism has any ground whatever to rest upon, either in God's Word, or the earliest ages of Christianity.

If the present attempt should be appreciated as deserving encouragement, the author may, if he can find the time, carry on the discussion through the first seven centuries of our era.

In conclusion, the writer desires to say that he has not intentionally written a word that would give needless pain to any who may honor his pages with a perusal.

August 16th, 1888.

THE DISCONNECTED LINKS IN THE CHAIN OF THE PAPAL SUCCESSION.

WHAT IS MODERN ROMANISM ?

Chapter I. The Polity Of Rome

TT7HAT is Modern Romanism? Unless one is able to VV answer this question clearly and distinctly, he is liable to fall a victim to the grossest imposition. The emissaries of this system are active and zealous, and should no warning be given or antidote provided, there is imminent danger that the unwary, who are unable to investigate for themselves, may, in their innocence, be misled. We write with a view to put such persons on their guard and furnish a few tests, which will enable them to distinguish the counterfeit from the true Catholicity. We propose to deal with the subject in such a way as to put it in the power of any one to investigate the matter for himself, without recourse to an apparatus of books, and the instrumentality of foreign tongues, so that the reader of these chapters may, after their perusal, lean back in his chair, and say to himself, "Well, I have grasped a principle which I understand, I have discerned a test which I can myself apply, I am in possession of facts which cannot be gainsaid ; in a word, I feel that I am being equipped with armor which I can use, myself, against all comers, I am being supplied with arguments which will enable me to protect myself against sophistry, be it employed by whom it may."

We begin then with the polity, or Church government, of Rome, and we ask the questions, What is it? What are its principles ? Is it the same now that it always was, or has it undergone a change?

The Church polity of Rome as the Roman theologians teach, may be described, in political language, as an absolute, unlimited monarchy. The Pope is an autocrat ; he is the head, not as a chairman is head of a gathering of citizens, or a President is in charge of a bank, or a Bishop exercises jurisdiction over a Diocese ; but he is by divine appointment the head of the Church, he is Christ's image on earth, he is in the place of Christ as no one else is or can be, he is above all and controls all, and is controlled by none. Do what he may, he is beyond man's judgment, and when he speaks authoritatively or officially, God the Holy Ghost prevents him from going wrong ; he is infallible.

The Papacy, therefore, in the literal meaning of the term, is an "absolute, unlimited monarchy," and is ruled by a monarch whom God lifts up above his fellows and puts in the place of His Son. He is at once the Vicar of Christ and the mouth of the Church; so that when he acts, Christ acts, and when he speaks, the Church speaks. His empire is the entire earth, the whole world, as we say. His jurisdiction reaches from pole to pole, and from the rising to the setting sun. All ecclesiastics, be they Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops or Deacons, are merely his deputies, his agents, receiving mission and j urisdiction from him . Without him, no one of them would have any legal authority to act or speak, or perform any ministerial function. If it were possible, which of course it is not, he would personally exercise his jurisdiction by himself ; but as he cannot

THE POLITY OF ROME. 15

be everywhere at the same time, he must needs employ subordinates to do his bidding and act in his name.

If, for instance, any diocese becomes vacant, the Pope alone can fill the vacancy. The method adopted makes this perfectly clear. The local Church does not select the successor, but usually submits three names to the Bishop of Rome, as suggestions of persons whom they would welcome as a Bishop in the place of the one deceased. The Pope may, if he so choose, select one of the parties so nominated, or he may pass them over and choose an entirely different person. In any case, the appointment is, as it is claimed, vested in him by divine right, and he accordingly fills the vacancy, and consecrates the new prelate, either directly by his own hand, or by commission through the hands of others deputed by him to perform the consecration. All priests and minor ecclesiastics receive, in the theory of modern Rome, their mission from the Pope, and only thus by his authority can they, in any part of the earth, exercise their respective ministries. Everything in the Church of Rome, be it what it may, Bishop, Priest, Deacon, Sacrament, confession, absolution, penance, depends upon the Pope. Imagine in civil affairs that there was but one monarch who ruled the entire earth, including the islands of the sea, without intervention of any legislature of any kind, except he chose to convene an assembly to record his will, and carry out his plans, and you have before you a picture of the papacy as it exists to-day.

This civil monarch, call him what you please, must necessarily have viceroys or lieutenants or deputies to represent him in the different countries, but the power and administration in every case would be as much his, as if he were present in person. In the case of the supposed civil ruler, however, his administration might be interrupted and his authority overthrown, or at least curtailed, by revolution, and a new government distributed among several; or many monarchs might succeed; but in the case of the polity of Modern Rome, this is impossible, since it is claimed that the Pope is what he is, the sole and absolute ruler of the whole earth, by divine appointment, and holds and exercises this supreme and unlimited control as the successor of S. Peter, who was in his day what the present Pope is in our day.

Consequently Modern Romanism is responsible for claiming that this system which we have endeavored to sketch, is of God and is clearly revealed by Him in Holy Scripture, and was carried out in all its essential principles from the very first ; so that if we compare the Romanism of to-day with the Church polity as exhibited in Holy Scripture, or in the time of S. Ignatius, or S. Polycarp, or S. Cyprian, or S. Augustine, or S. Chrysostom, or in any subsequent age, it will correspond precisely and accurately, so that it will be seen to be as it must necessarily be, if it is God's plan, mapped out by Himself, the same from the very first and in all the ages all along.

We will now make the comparison and bring Modern Romanism face to face with Church polity as presented by Scripture, and as far as space will permit, in the first thousand years of Christianity.

Chapter II. The Church Of The Gospel

IN our last chapter we answered the question, What is Modern Romanism, in so far as to sketch its polity. We saw that it is an absolute monarchy, with the Pope at its head. To recapitulate : The Pope is, as Modern Romanism holds, an order by himself. He is sui generis, there is no one like him as to power and office. He is above all. He rules all, and can be controlled by no one. The collective Episcopate is completely the creature of his will. It can have no mind or opinion of its own. It has been sunk from an independent order in the Church of God, to be a mere grade of the Priesthood. Moreover, it is a local polity, having its home in one city, which gives its name as a title to the Church. Modern Romanism calls itself, the Holy Roman Church ; and so it disposes, itself, of its claim to Catholicity. That which is local in the centre and sweep of its jurisdiction on the earth, cannot be in the true sense of the term, Universal or Catholic.

Keeping this fundamental idea of the polity of Modern Rome clearly in mind, let us test its truth as established by God, by comparing it with the Church as presented to us in the pages of Revelation, as an existing reality. on the earth in the days of the Apostles and their associates ; and subsequently when we leave the pages of Revelation, as existing in the first thousand years of the Christian era.

Before we institute the comparison suggested, let us briefly inquire as to at least one of the great purposes which God designed to accomplish, in giving us the Holy Scriptures. We are at present, of course, concerned simply with the New Testament. The subject matter of the New Testament falls under three heads : Historical, directly or indirectly; Dogmatic, and Prophetical. The History is, of course, Divine in its origin and execution, and so, free from human imperfection. The Dogma is absolutely true. The Prophecy is sure and certain. One grand purpose which God had in view, in giving us these writings was to furnish us a chart of fundamental principles, rooted in Christ Himself, Whose life the four Evangelists sketch; exemplified and practically carried out under the direction of Christ's own chosen masterbuilders, the inspired Apostles, during the first seventy years of the history of the Church Militant here on earth, and fulfilled in absolute perfection in the Church Triumphant, as seen by S. John the Divine in the visions of the Apocalypse.

We thus have in the New Testament a statement by Christ Himself of the essential principles which were to characterize His Kingdom on earth, the Christian Church when it was established, as it was shortly to be, by the power and operation of the Holy Ghost. We have those principles practically acted upon and applied by the Apostles in carrying out their Master's will in administering His Church, when it became an existing reality on and after the day of Pentecost ; and we see the Divine Head of

THE CHURCH OF THE GOSPEL. 19

the Church recognizing these principles, and making them the rule of His government and administration of the Church Triumphant in Heaven. The Gospels show us what the principles of the coming Kingdom were to be. The Acts of the Holy Apostles directly, and their Epistles incidentally, show us that those same principles were applied and carried out, practically, in the first years of the life of the Church on earth, and the "Revelation of S. John shows us in prophecy that the same principles will be observed in the government and administration of the Church throughout the ages of eternity. With this view as to one of the great purposes of the New Testament Scriptures, let us bring the polity of the Holy Roman Church as now held and taught "of faith," face to face with the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles and the Revelation of S. John, and see whether it can bear the test of the comparison.

In the Gospels, our Lord speaks of His Kingdom as a thing about to be. He declares that His Kingdom is near at hand, that He will establish it, that His Apostles shall sit upon thrones, and shall eat and drink in His Kingdom. During His earthly ministry, He called to Himself from their various occupations, twelve men, whom he kept with Him from the day of tlis Baptism until His Ascension into Heaven. These He instructed by precept and example. To them He gave commission to do, in the future, certain things, and exercise certain offices. He trained them for their future vocation as only God the Son could, and prepared them to be witnesses of the supreme event in His Incarnation, namely, His Resurrection from the Dead. On His Resurrection from the dead He staked His character as the Prophet, Priest and King, the only Begotten of the Father, the Messiah, the Saviour of mankind. In due course of time He was put to death, and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures. And during forty days He remained on earth in order to give the Apostles and others, many infallible proofs of His Resurrection.

At the expiration of those great forty days, during which the Lord of life, in His supernatural human nature (for now His humanity has passed through the grave and gate of death), remained on earth, He gathered round Him His disciples, and gave them the plenary charter of mission and jurisdiction to act in His stead, pledging Himself to be with them until the end of the world. This commission thus given as the last act of our Lord while visibly present on the earth, is the summing up and gathering together of all the points in the separate directions and commands which He had given them from time to time during His ministry, and subsequently to His Resurrection, when He was speaking to them, as related in the Acts, "of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." This plenary commission is expressed in the following words, which will be found in the twenty-eighth chapter of S. Matthew, nineteenth and twentieth verses : "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

This commission was addressed to the eleven Apostles and not to one, and consequently here is a discrepancy

THE CHURCH OF THE GOSPEL. 21

which is absolutely fatal to the theory of Church government as presented in the polity of Modern Rome. To satisfy the conditions of that system it would have been necessary for our Lord to speak primarily and solely to S. Peter, and bid him dispense at his will and pleasure such mission and jurisdiction as he might be pleased to impart, not to his fellow Apostles, but, to his inferiors, in order and degree beneath, and entirely subordinate to, himself.

In the Gospel narrative our Lord is presented to us as the one fountain of power and grace on earth. " All power is given unto Me," saith He, " in heaven and in earth. Go 3^e therefore," etc. And He wills that that power and grace shall flow forth originally in eleven separate channels, to be diffused in due time through those streams, prolonged and subdivided and multiplied in inferior ministries throughout the entire earth, and to the end of time, so that in every case, be it when or where it may, one may trace the minutest rivulet of power and grace in any human heart and life, back to the larger stream, and back to some one of the Apostolic channels, and thence to the original fountain source, our Risen Lord, standing on the Mount of Ascension, exercising His sovereignty, just before He went up on high to seat Himself by absolute right upon the throne of God.

What we mean to assert is this : That the grace of Holy Orders was given and distributed by Christ to the eleven Apostles, and was not given by Christ to S. Peter, and by S. Peter distributed to the ten Apostles; and until this can be shown to have been the case, Modern Romanism in its polity, is utterly and absolutely out of joint with our Blessed Lord's original charter of the Ministry, as given on the Mount of Ascension.

Chapter III. The Mission To All The Apostles Alike

WE have now brought Modern Romanism — an absolute monarchy, with the Pope in the place of Christ, claiming to inherit this position from S. Peter — face to face with the risen Lord giving His final and plenary commission to His Apostles, probably within the very hour when He ascended into Heaven; and we have seen that the modern counterfeit and the original draught not only do not agree, but are hopelessly irreconcilable with each other. S. Peter does not occupy the pkce which is now held by the Bishop of Rome, he is not put before his brother Apostles, he is not above them, he is not nearer to his Divine Master, he is not addressed separately, and set over the rest, and directed to make known as his will and pleasure what he has himself first received, and to give mission and jurisdiction to them in such time and manner as he may see fit. On the contrary the Sovereign Head of the Church addresses all alike and says, " Go ye therefore, * * and lo ! I am with you " — not thee in the singular, but you in the plural — " even unto the end of the world." If S. Peter had been assigned by our Lord the place which the Pope claims to-day by divine right as his successor, he would have been withdrawn from his fellow Apostles to the top of the mountain, and alone with the Saviour, while they would have been far removed, beneath, out of hearing

THE MISSION TO ALL THE APOSTLES ALIKE. 23

if not out of sight, and the Master's words would not have been, " Go ye, teach ye, baptize ye, and lo ! I am with you all," but as He embraced S. Peter and made him by that embrace as nearly as outward act can, one with Himself, the words would have been, " Go thou, baptize thou, and lo ! I am with thee, even unto the end of the world."

The record given by S. Matthew is the charter of the Church of Christ ; it embodies the fundamental principles of its government as formulated and proclaimed by the Lord Himself.

Modern Romanism has substituted another charter for this ; it has revolutionized the original and divinely constituted government, and in place of the Apostles bearing rale as the vicars of the one great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, it presents the Pope as the one vicar of Christ, as the head of the Church, as inheriting personally all the promises which are given in Holy Scripture to the Church in its organic capacity, so that he lays hold of our Saviour's words, pledging himself that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church, and claims for himself, and asserts in consequence, that he is, in the sphere of faith and morals, " infallible, " that is, that the gates of hell can never prevail against him.

No theory of development will explain the change which has taken place from the Apostolic, primitive and Catholic polity of the Church, resting upon the divine charter given by her great Head just before He seated Himself, in our nature, as invested with all power in Heaven and in earth, on the throne of God — no theory of development, we say, will explain the change from the original govern-

24 WHAT IS MODERN R03IANI8M %

ment instituted by Christ in person, to the Papacy as it now exists. Revolution, usurpation, substitution, come between — not development. The change is not such as comes from growth when the child becomes a man, but such as happens when Csesar strangles the republic and reigns supreme. The Pope, alleging that he occupies S. Peter's place, and exercises S. Peter's prerogatives, has put his foot upon the neck of the Episcopate of his own communion, and bent it to his will, so that it has lost its independence, and to Roman theology, has ceased to be an order of the sacred ministry, and survives simply as a grade of the Priesthood.

This did not S. Peter. He was, it is true, generally first in action and in administration, but the New Testament and primitive tradition never represent him as superseding them, ruling them, acting without reference to them, as independent of them, much less in opposition to them, except when his old habit returned and he was guilty of dissimulation, and was deservedly rebuked with sharpness for his fault.

The Apostles, of whom S. Peter was one, exercise under Christ supreme authority. They send S. Peter and S. John on an errand. They receive a report from S. Peter of his labors, and of his reasons for doing as he did. They sit in a joint assembly and S. Peter with them, under the presidency, or chairmanship, of S. James, and the resolve of the council is proclaimed and published, not in the name of S. Peter, nor by S. Peter, but as the determination of the Apostolic body acting under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. A younger Apostle, as one born out of due time, enters the ministry by the direct call of the

THE MISSION TO ALL THE APOSTLES ALIKE. 25

Ascended Jesus, speaking from Heaven, and he, as taking office when the Church has been, so to speak, for some time in working order, must illustrate in the most emphatic way by his relation to S. Peter, whether it was God's will that S. Peter should be the head of the Church, the absolute ruler of the Body of Christ on earth. So far from this, while the Book of the Acts and the Epistles of S. Paul and S. Peter remain, and are allowed to be a part of the inspired Scriptures, it will be impossible, utterly impossible, to make good for S. Peter the claim that he held a place of supremacy over the Apostles. Nay, S. Paul's life and labors, as related by the divine penmen, form, as we shall hereafter see, a refutation which amounts to a demonstration adverse to the Petrine prerogatives, as asserted by modern Roman theologians.

The supremacy and infallibility of the Pope, as articles of the creed required to be believed by all members of the Holy Roman Church at the present day, and the polity which they represent, can be readily accounted for as one reads ecclesiastical history, but not on the theory of development. The}7 are the product of circumstances, overruled, doubtless, by God's hand, but arising, combining, progressing, receding, changing, as we say, in the course of human affairs, and bringing about results which are sufficiently explained by the agency of man. The polity of the Church of Rome — as it presents itself to the world to-day ; the perfection, almost, of organization, under the dominion of one man who claims to be more than man, in the place of God, representing God on a vastly loftier plane than any other creature does or can, receiving directly alone of the sons of men sacramental grace for the human family, and dispensing it at his will to his subordinates throughout the entire earth — this wonderful phenomenon is no more the development of Church growth advancing under the operation of spiritual laws, directly stated or implied in Holy Scripture, than the monster painted by Horace in his Art of Poetry is or could be the product of nature. God created His Church? He framed its constitution, He appointed its officers, He instituted its Sacraments, He, in a very special and exceptional way, attested by miracles, superintended its birth and organization ; and then, when it had gone abroad from its home throughout the world and made itself a local habitation in every region and under all conditions of human society and life, He closed the book of records which He moved men to make, and guarded them from error in making, up to this time, and left it as His testimony, certified with His own hand and sealed with His own signet, as to the polity of His Church, not only in theory but in fact, not in one place and for a single year, but in every place and for at least two generations. This testimony is ample as to the character and fundamental principles of the government which He arranged for His Church, and under which He willed her to live and grow to the end of time ; and this testimony, given by Almighty God Himself, forever excludes the absolute unlimited monarchy of the Papacy from being His creation, or existing in accordance with His will. They cannot both be true. Accept the polity of Rome, as now held and practiced, as the divinely appointed form of Church government, and you must, on logical principles, dismiss a considerable portion of the New Testament as untrustworthy.

THE MISSION TO ALL THE APOSTLES ALIKE. 27

On the other hand, if you receive the Gospels and Acts and Epistles as the word of God, you cannot possibly, while reason maintains her sway, submit . to the claims of the Bishop of Rome as now maintained.

It must be remembered that the principles of Church government stated by our Lord in His parting communication to His Apostles, do not stand alone in the Gospels as an exceptional declaration on our Lord's part. On the contrary, all that goes before in His training and education of those whom He called and chose to be with Him, leads up to this His plenary and final commission and charter. The alleged exceptions on which Rome rests her case in Holy Scripture we will consider hereafter, and it will be seen, we think, that they make against, not for her. Let us bear in mind that we are in quest, not so much of decisive statements, clear, positive utterances and crucial acts, as of conduct and words and treatment which will have a bearing, a drift and purpose which can be clearly seen, and which must make for the one side or the other. To read Holy Scripture in this way will be found to be exceedingly interesting and profitable, and if we can happily succeed in illustrating the general principle by its application to the particular point, of seeking to discover whether the intercourse of our Blessed Lord with His Apostles during His earthly ministry, as an educational process, favored the Roman claims of Petrine supremacy or the Catholic teaching of Apostolic equality, we shall be accomplishing a double object — helping the cause of truth, and furnishing a valuable hint to Bible students to answer correctly the inquiry, How shall I read the Holy Scriptures profitably?

Chapter IV. Papal Infallibility

WHEN Cato sought to arouse the Roman people to a sense of their danger from their rival, Carthage, he concluded every speech which he delivered in the senate, with the words, " Carthago delenda est." It made no difference how irrelevant the closing sentence was to the subject matter which had gone before, the unvarying statement fell from his lips, and the more incongruous it seemed, the more thrilling and lasting was the effect which it produced. Gradually the sharp, ringing assertion, sometimes so strangely and always so emphatically uttered, made its way from the senate chamber to the streets and homes of Rome ; it struck a responsive chord in the national heart, and boys and girls, as well as men and women, could be heard shouting and singing, " Carthago delenda est." At length the orator's purpose was accomplished ; the sentiment became an enthusiastic passion, and the Roman legions made the will of their countrymen a dread reality, when Carthage was overthrown.

Cato's example and his brilliant success, are our excuse for repeating so frequently the root error of Modern Romanism. We must open the eyes of our people to this one great evil which poisons the whole system, and sinks, by comparison, all other errors and corruptions into insignificance. This is the giant heresy which defends and shelters all others; it is the Goliath which goes forth before the hosts and confronts you at every turn. Let the question be one of metaphysics in the discussion of the doctrine of Transubstantiation ; you will soon find yourself in the presence of the claim, that the Pope is the vicar of Cheist and the mouthpiece of the Church, and he, in the person of Innocent III., enjoined the teaching, as he had the right to do, as of divine authority and binding on the conscience, and hence it must be received — under the penalty, if rejected, of damnation.

Let the inquiry be as to the validity of English Orders, and we make good our claim by clear, unimpeachable proofs as to the sufficiency of the ordinal and the competency of the consecrators to confer Orders ; all objections are swept away by the overwhelming testimony of history, but we are brought at last, as we anticipated, to the issue of the Papal Supremacy. The Pope's authority, it is alleged, was not asked nor given, and consequently English Orders lack the essentials which could alone make them represent Christ and His Church. Or, we venture to dispute the teaching of Rome on the subjects of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Infallibility of the Pope. We show conclusively that the two lines of teaching represented by these recently imposed articles of faith in the Roman Communion, cannot be drawn inferentially, by the most ingenious handling, from Holy Scripture or any ancient Christian writer ; but Goliath steps to the front, and we are told that it needs not Holy Scripture or Patristic testimony to establish these alleged truths ; they rest upon the authority of S. Peter, speaking through his successor, Pius IX.